This is the concept that will be thoroughly explored through the skeletal images of Mexican illustrator and political cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada in the gallery's two new coinciding shows. Using the skulls, or calaveras, seen in Day of the Dead art, Posada created emotive newsprint illustrations and lithographs in the late 1800s and early 1900s that documented (and satirized) the news of the time and inspired better-known artists like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
Posada's Broadsheets: Of Love and Betrayal will showcase 54 original broadsheets along with English translations that Corrigan says offer a "raw commentary on mankind using the skeletal image to kind of bring a sense of humor, bring it all back down to bare bones."
The work of Colorado Springs artist Jerry Vigil will also be on display in Posada Inspired, a contemporary take on how Posada's art influenced his own; it will showcase colorful sculptures as well as 2-D pieces that feature calaveras.
Both exhibits will be on view tonight at a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. at Emmanuel Gallery on the Auraria campus, with Vigil in attendance; they'll stay up through July 19. For more information, go to www.emmanuelgallery.org.
June 7-July 19, 2012
